Aichi man arrested again after having slashed over 1,000 womenâ€™s tires to get to know them better

Jul 06, 2020 | News On Japan

Jul 06, 2020 (soranews24.com) - Suspect simply canâ€™t stop attempting to meet women in the worst possible way.

On 11 June, a 43-year-old woman exited a supermarket in Higashiura, Aichi Prefecture and drove away in her car. However, she didnâ€™t get far before noticing that her driverâ€™s side rear tire had gone completely flat.

While examining the flat another car drove up. The driver, 32-year-old Yoshito Harada, offered to replace her damaged tire. While a kind gesture from an apparently total stranger, the woman was struck with a sudden case of dÃ©jÃ vu. This is because the exact same thing had happened to her in June of the previous year.

Unsettled by the coincidence, she decided to report the encounter to the police who investigated the matter and found through surveillance camera footage that Harada had slashed her tire in the parking lot of the supermarket. He then followed her car until it pulled over so that he could be the first on the scene to offer help.

According to police, Harada admitted to the crime, saying that he did it in order to meet the woman.

Now, hereâ€™s where the plot thickens. As the news of this strange attempt at courtship came out some netizens were reminded of an eerily similar case in 2013. The suspect then was also a man named Yoshito Harada who was 25 at the time and hailed from the same city as this Harada.

Assuming this isnâ€™t a remarkable coincidence, this man was picked up seven years earlier for the exact same misdeed. In fact, during that arrest Haradaâ€™s lawyer remarked that he had probably done it about 1,000 times.

Harada avoided prison by compensating the few victims who came forward 30,000 yen (US$279) each. He also agreed to certain monitoring measures such as a GPS tracker that his parents could use to make sure he was staying out of trouble.

It didnâ€™t seem to work, however, and he was picked up again in 2016 after a victim told an acquaintance who also had her tire â€œfixedâ€ by a 28-year-old man in the same way in 2015. This was the exact same situation that led to his 2013 arrest.

Typhoons No. 28 and 29 Bring High Waves to Japan's Pacific Coast

Two typhoons moving across the Pacific southeast of Japan are expected to remain well away from the Japanese mainland, but powerful swells could bring rough seas to a wide stretch of the country's Pacific coastline throughout the three-day holiday weekend, according to forecasts updated at 3 a.m. on October 10.

Cyberattacks Spread Across Japan

A series of cyberattacks has disrupted business operations and exposed millions of customer records across Japan, with a ransomware attack on a cloud service provider affecting 495 companies and local governments nationwide, while convenience store operator Lawson has disclosed a separate breach involving more than 2.15 million personal information records.

Japan's First 360-Degree Projection Mapping Opens in Osaka

Japan's first 360-degree projection mapping show will open at the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts on October 10, transforming the historic building into an immersive world of light, music, and seasonal imagery, with organizers hoping the attraction will also help stimulate the city's nighttime economy.

Tokyo University Professor Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Tokyo University of Science professor emeritus Kenzo Soai has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with French chemist Henri B. Kagan for discoveries that transformed scientists' understanding of how chemical reactions can favor one of two mirror-image forms of a molecule.

US Military Halts All Okinawa Operations for 48 Hours

The US military suspended activities by all forces stationed in Okinawa for 48 hours from noon on October 7, an unusual measure following the arrest of a US Marine in connection with a robbery and murder case that has renewed scrutiny of crimes involving American service members.

MEDIA CHANNELS

MORE Society NEWS

Most Sightings of Fugitive Yoichi Hatta Reported in Kanto

Police in Oita Prefecture have revealed that the Kanto region accounts for the largest number of reported sightings of Yoichi Hatta, a fugitive wanted in connection with a fatal hit-and-run incident in Beppu in 2022, with authorities preparing to distribute new wanted posters nationwide from November as the search enters its fifth year.